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Lilly Kole
“It’s Lilly Kole, she’s practically invincible.” Lilly Kole is a freshman forward at Nova State University (circa book 1) and narrator of the For Starters series. Biography Prior For Starters: Lilly Kole was born on July 4th, 1999 to Atticus and Margaret Kole. She was raised in the same house her entire life, which was a white, four-floor, Colonial-style home in the Wildewood Neighborhood of Columbia, South Carolina. She played for the U8, U10, U12, and U16 Columbia-based travel soccer club, the Carolina Rapids. Her early soccer years proved Lilly had a great love for the sport but relied purely on speed and instinct, making smaller details such as pure skill very frustrating for Lilly to master. Lilly attended Spring Valley High School, a Columbia school known for its high academics in the sciences. Her sophomore and junior year, Lilly dated the first-string quarterback Johnny McAfee. Apparently Lilly hated Johnny at first, yet he intrigued by the fact that she was one of the people not completely awe-struck by him. The two broke up as Lilly was entering her senior year based on information that Johnny had cheated on her while touring colleges to play football. Lilly was named captain of the soccer team her senior year of High School, won an accolade for reaching 500 goals in her Spring Valley Career, and also ran track to participate in States in a 4X800 relay. Lilly’s dream school was UNC Chapel Hill, a rival to her dad’s alma-mater (Duke). She toured in hopes of wooing their soccer coach, she was labelled as too impulsive of a player and wasn’t fit for the program. Heartbroken and defeated, Lilly took a full-ride scholarship to competitor school, Nova State University. For Starters I: Lilly came to Nova State University in Fall 2018 to play soccer on a full-ride scholarship. She initially regrets her decision, as her impulse soccer tendencies begin to give her a bed reputation on the team. As Lilly’s spirits begin to low during pre-season, she considers quitting the team but eventually refuses to let herself give up her dream. She and only one other freshman make it through the pre-season and are granted as full-members of the team by captain Danielle Freeman (unofficially) and Coach Beasley (officially). After participating in Fight and Flight Night Lilly’s eyes open to her new team and she is finally satisfied with her decision to come to Nova State University. The night after Fight and Flight, Lilly and Corrie are struggling at practice due to their hangover from the night before. After making an insane run to score a goal in a scrimmage at practice, Lilly nearly passes out due to dehydration. She is administered to the care of Jake Argent, an assistant trainer for the team. An awkward exchange while Jake is helping Lilly into the locker-room ends in Lilly immediately hitting it off with the sophomore. Corrie throws up minutes later, and Coach Beasley discovers the freshmen’s hangovers so the two are introduced to intense Freshman Duties after practice as a punishment. Since Lilly lost the Fight and Flight race she is forced to do the duties on her own, but as she sweeping the floor prior to everyone leaving she begins smiling and singing as she finally feels a part of something. As class starts two days later, Lilly goes through the normal buzz of school until she goes to a Chemistry class and realizes the guy that sits beside her is Jake. They become lab-partners and Jake finally begins to open up fully. Lilly begins to roll into the scheduled routine of college, and is quickly taken underneath Dan Freeman’s wing. One morning before practice Lilly asks Dan to help her with headers, Dan is moved and joins her on the field an hour before practice to work on headers (a specialty of Dan’s). Dan asks Lilly to join her and Amanda to Chipotle after practice. The conversation they had isn’t known, but apparently Lilly fit into the dynamic duo’s mix and they became known as the “Golden Triad”. As the semester moves on, Lilly becomes closer to her team--specifically Dan, Amanda, and Corrie. Though, as the first Chemistry quiz was approaching Lilly sought out Jake as a study-buddy. So, at the first away game of the season against Penn State, Lilly snuck out of her room with Corrie to go study with Jake. That night they kissed and Lilly snuck out of his room shortly after to sit on it. The Penn State ended in a 2-1 victory and the Nova State Grizzlies’ season was hopeful with a 2-0 streak to start the season. That night the team went out to a wing shop for dinner. As the team was joking around, Lilly looked up and met Jake’s eye for a split-second and made a split-second promise to herself to not get attached as she was still heavily guarded after her breakup with Johnny two years prior. After returning back to Nova, Lilly and Jake begin a normal routine of getting together after practice to do Chemistry. The first kiss was never mentioned, and they functioned well together as friends. They begin to hang out outside of soccer and Chemistry, one day they go to the Arcade at the mall which is where Dan catches them. A few days later, Dan invites the team over to her apartment to “wine and dine.” The team eats pizza with cheap wine, casually roasting each other until Dan pokes at Lilly being with the team trainer, which was apparently completely out-of-line and rules. Lilly insisted her innocence angrily, and was backed up by the remainder of the team. The Nova girls continued to win their games and stood at a 4-0 winning streak. The fifth game was an away game at UNC Chapel Hill, which weighed heavily on Lilly. After arriving at their hotel in Cary, NC, Lilly snuck into Jake’s room for the first time without a Chemistry book. She insisted she’d hated talking, just talking about things and Jake laughed at her. She was frustrated with him but he ended up getting her to talk as Lilly vented about her past relationship with UNC. After that Jake opens up about his father and ex-girlfriend Helen. Lilly says, “I’m not too great at this. This feely stuff, this I’m here for you stuff. I’m an asshole Jake, let’s be honest here.” In this conversation Lilly finally opens up for the first time in years, when she almost breaks down she curses herself and attempts to storm out of the room but Jake holds her back. That night they had sex. In the morning Lilly cursed herself once again, and she snuck out of his room unnoticed. When she returned to her room she found Corrie awake, waiting on her. Corrie questioned Lilly, but dropped it after Lilly explained her insomnia--a condition she had really struggled with in the past. At the team breakfast, Lilly’s mind begins to get at itself. She felt humiliated having to go against the school that didn’t want, the legendary coach who called her a “selfish, unreliable” player, and she begins to get quiet with the team. No one knows what’s wrong with her as they begin to prepare for the game. Coach Beasley announces the starting line-up in the locker room prior to the game, and names Lilly for the first time. She is ecstatic, and quickly forces herself to focus despite the competition and her night with Jake. During the game Lilly’s weaknesses are brought out by UNC’s Head Coach, who had seen many of her tapes during her recruitment. Nova falls 1-2. Lilly is bummed about the game, and begins to ignore Jake as she convinces herself it is her only way to stay focused, when in reality she tries to cut herself off from someone who knew the little things about her. A week passes of ignoring Jake, and Lilly finally comes clean in Chemistry and asks if she can come over to study before their next test. Jake agrees and Lilly goes over to his apartment, which was an old place over a cafe called Moe Joe’s where Jake would work part-time when he could. They have sex again, and Jake offers for Lilly to stay over for the night, yet Lilly quickly rushes out and returns back to her dorm. When she gets back to her dorm, her room-mate Kehlani is up and admits to Lilly that she got injured at Basketball Conditioning and would possibly need surgery. Lilly sits with her until Kehlani’s team mates picked her back up to take her to the Hospital again. Jake and Lilly continue to hook-up while remaining friends, and their secrets covered beautifully. Dan hosts a Halloween Party with the help of one of her Frat Boy friends and Lilly takes the night as an opportunity to let loose. As she and Dan get drunk, Dan mentions a couple sideways glances and little smiles she’d seen between Jake and Lilly. Lilly, once again, argued her side that they were just friends, this made Dan dare Lilly to go make-out with a Frat boy. Lilly does. She is horrified when Jake enters the party, as she was completely clueless to him even coming until she realized it was a required soccer event. Jake sees her with the boy and walks out on the porch. Lilly slips out of the party a few minutes later and finds Jake on the porch with a drink, which was very unlike him. She explains there was nothing to it. She tells Jake she just doesn’t do commitment, and she doesn’t want to trust anyone. Jake began to say something about Helen, and went to take a drink of his beer. Lilly snatched the cup, downed it and argued Jake. In a bit of drunken rage, Lilly vents to Jake about her ex, Johnny. “I’m sorry, alright? It’s not like we were something Jake, you just gotta walk out before they walk out on you. It’s fucking survival of the fittest. And I’m the fittest.” That night Lilly gets extremely drunk, later Jake finds her at the party and pulls her back on the porch. She goes home with him, as he insists she’s way too drunk to make it back to her dorm on her own. As Lilly tried desperately to convince him to let her stay because she felt so guilty about the entire evening, Jake said, “No. I’m not walking out without you, I’m not doing it.” Lilly woke up in Jake’s bed around nine the next morning, and snuck out of his apartment, only to have second-thoughts and she returned to surprise Jake with coffee from the cafe downstairs. The games continue and Nova stands at a 7-1 standing, and a ranking of 4 as the pressure began to get to everyone on the team as November arrived. At the first away game of November Lilly ends up in Jake’s room as usual, yet Dan catches Lilly sneaking out of his room the next morning and then notices them exchange glances at the Team Breakfast. As the team celebrated their win that night, Dan, once again confronted Lilly and Lilly decided she had to be more secretive. Jake became frustrated with her, and eventually they stopped talking all together. Lilly and Dan began to go out before practice to work on particular drills together everyday, and Dan began to note Lilly’s growing frustration with everything. As November continued, it was announced that Nova was going to the Semi-Finals. That night Dan throws a huge kegger and while Lilly, Dan, Amanda, and Corrie are out on her balcony Lilly finally fesses up to half of her relationship with Jake. “I miss my best friend.” The team wins against WVU in the Semi-Final, and Lilly is horrified when the Final game in San Jose, CA is announced: Nova v. UNC. As the team begins to prepare for their final game, Lilly is injured with a minor sprained ankle. That night she limps over to Jake’s, and upon him opening the door she says, “I’m not walking out on you Jake. Everything’s falling apart and you’re there, and I--I--care very much--oh whatever, I love you Jake.” Jake helps Lilly keep her ankle a secret as he works on it, although she doesn’t perform well in practice due to her injury she manages to grab her second starting position. The night before the game Jake helps Lilly with a pep-talk and she sleeps in his room as always. The Final game has the largest crowd the history of the tournament had ever seen. The game was tough, yet Lilly refused to let UNC find her chinks again and she levelled the game at 2-2 in the eighty-eighth minute of play. The game goes to PKs, Nova pulls through. That night Lilly and the team went out to party. As they were walking into a club, she was stopped by UNC’s Head Coach. He offered her a full-ride scholarship and admitted he wanted her to play for his team. Lilly found herself thinking about it for a minute, but Dan shouted about having beers behind her and Lilly just smiled and said, “No thank you sir.” For Starters II: Lilly is horrified as she enters her Sophomore year when her parents tell her that her little sister Meredith will be coming to school at Nova. Lilly is thrust into the limelight as she is invited to a US Women's’ Soccer Conference. She is approached by a man who calls himself Arthur, who wants to empower women’s soccer around the globe and asks Lilly to be his subject of power. Lilly happily agrees, loving her newfound fame. As the whole team returns back to Nova for another year of school and soccer, Lilly purchases a house with Dan, Meredith, Amanda, Corrie, and Maria. Jake shows interest in wanting to move in with Lilly, yet she obviously hears none of it. Soccer starts back up and Coach Beasley is worried about the team, as he says the top is a dangerous place to be, and the team’s popularity was beginning to get to their heads. The team is snapped to attention as they lose in their season opener against Ohio State. Personality Overview Initially Lilly is blustery, cocky and in all aspects of the word, a little shit. Upon closer review, Lilly is a determined, go-lucky girl with the ability to stay cool under pressure. She’s impulsive, which often gets her into trouble in every aspect in life whether she say something stupid or does something stupid. Some say Lilly’s even a bit of an adrenaline junkie, she enjoys experiences that give her a rush. Furthermore, Lilly is very stubborn and steadfast in her ways. It’s her way or the highway, this is both good and bad as it makes her impossible as a team mate and opponent. Lilly’s humor is sharp and quick, she’s snarky and skilled at finding someone’s weakness and turning it into a joke for herself. She is very athletic, yet is less of a skill-based athlete and focuses more on instinct and general quickness than craft. After her breakup with Johnny, Lilly is a pretty guarded individual. She has commitment issues, trouble opening up, and she’s ruthlessly cruel when people try to attack these weaknesses. Despite everything, Lilly is loyal to the core. Once you’re one of the few she loves, she’s always going to have your back and even though she can be a bit of a bitch sometimes, you can always rely on her to pull through for you. Wishes Lilly is extremely goal-driven, literally and figuratively. She wishes for a life that's pretty much soccer-obsessed, of course she wants some fame in that. Appearance and Skills Overview Lilly stands at 5'6, weighing around 152 pounds, and has a very lean appearance. Lilly has been described as far as looking "like a swimmer." She has long arms and legs, and appears almost stocky due to her muscle. Overall she just appears to look like an athlete. She is known for her famous mousy brown messy ponytail which is pretty much her only hairstyle, and she'll throw baseball caps on pretty frequently unless she's playing soccer. Her eyes are an icy blue, that contrast with her light olive tone. Also, her nose is a bit sideways due to having it broken so many times in high school soccer matches. Lilly's biggest indicator is her constantly sunburnt cheeks. In the summer months Lilly's cheeks stay reddened from spending so much time in the sun, on the other hand, in the winter she tends to get windburnt in the same area. This is a pain sometimes as she's made fun of by team-mates for blushing, but hey, sometimes they're right. Relationships Atticus and Margaret Kole Lilly's relationship with her parents isn't delved into much. She makes it clear that she was more of a "Daddy's Girl" growing up whereas Meredith was more attached to Margaret. Her relationship with her parents is healthy, just not very strong, and Lilly feels choked by their moral expectations. Atticus is very patient with Lilly's rebellion though, and always gives her the benefit of the doubt. On the other hand, Margaret and Lilly always bash heads. Meredith mentions in Book II that Lilly and Margaret loved each other, yet there was never a time there wasn't tension between them. The two are so alike it's just impossible for them to get along. Jake Argent Jake and Lilly begin the series as purely friends. After Jake kisses Lilly their friendship ironically grew stronger as Lilly forced Jake to just be a friend. After they had sex the first time at the Penn State game, their relationship was no longer black and white and entered a grey area. Despite denial on both of their ends their relationship is very strong and vital for each of them. Survival without the other seems impossible because Jake is literally Lilly's best friend too. Trivia * Lilly has a Blue Gatorade, Cool Blue, addiction. She craves it and needs it, refusing to drink any other Gatorade flavor or sports drink in general * Lilly has a tattoo of the Roman Numeral seven "XII" on her right shoulder blade after a drunken night with Dan. * Lilly's major at Nova is Exercise Physiology, though she plans on minoring in Media. * In High School Lilly played six sports: lacrosse, soccer, softball, basketball, track and field, and hockey.